Alexander V. Dimitrov, Selassie`s Doctor

Dr. Alexander ``Sasha`` V. Dimitrov, 69, a Chicago internist and cardiologist and formerly personal physician to the late Haile Selassie, emperor of Ethiopia, died Monday in Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Dr. Dimitrov, a native of Yugoslavia, came to the U.S. in 1964 and had been on the staff at Edgewater Hospital for 25 years. He was senior attending physician there.

Dr. Dimitrov was educated in Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. He practiced medicine and was assistant professor at the university hospital in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, from 1948 to 1957.

In 1957, he went to Ethiopia to be medical director of Menelik Hospital in Addis Ababa.

The emperor then made Dr. Dimitrov his personal physician, according to Dr. Dimitrov`s daughter, Isolde Burik.

In 1963, Dr. Dimitrov was awarded a fellowship at the London Institute of Cardiology. But Burik said her father took instead an opportunity to move his family to the U.S., which she said was his ``lifelong dream.``

Dr. Dimitrov, who lived on the North Side, is survived by his wife, Vera; his daughter; and a sister.

Services will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the chapel at 6150 N. Cicero Ave.